More than 500 students from some 25 campuses contacted 378 of the 535 members of the U.S. Senate and House yesterday with appeals for continuation by Congress of its support for programs helpful to Soviet Jewry.
Their activity was sponsored by the Student Coalition for Soviet Jewry which was founded five years ago at Brandeis University and where it maintains its headquarters. Beth Waxman, a Brandeis senior majoring in Judaic studies who is the Coalition’s public relations chairperson, said the number of students taking part in this annual program set a record.
She said 185 members of the Senate and House were personally addressed with a student from the member’s home state taking part. In addition, packets outlining the need to maintain support for Soviet Jewry were left in the offices of 193 Senators and Representatives of states in which the Coalition did not have a student constituent. Most of the students were from Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania and the Washington area.
The program was highlighted by a program at which Sen. Edward Kennedy (D. Mass.), Rep. Norman Mineta (D. Calif.), Rep. Millicent Fenwick (R. N.J.) and Michael Brailovsky, brother of imprisoned Prisoner of Conscience Viktor Brailovsky, were among the speakers.
Michael, allowed to emigrate four years ago from the Soviet Union, now lives in Israel. Viktor was arrested last November in Moscow for alleged slander against the Soviet government. Aides to Senators Rudy Boschwitz (R. Minn.) and Carl Levin (D. Mich.) also took part in the program. Neither Senator was in Washington.
STUDENTS URGED TO CONTINUE STRUGGLE
Kennedy urged the students to continue their struggle to help Soviet Jews. "We must not forget the many Prisoners of Conscience still detained," he said. "We must not forget Viktor Brailovsky, Anatoly Shcharansky, Ida Nudel and many other courageous men and women whose daily struggle for freedom goes on. Above all, let us pledge that American shall always stand as a beacon to the world for the great principles of human rights."
Mineta and Fenwick, who keynoted the program, urged the students to make their views known to the Soviet leadership on the linkage between emigration and cultural rights for Soviet Jews and normal Soviet-American relationships.
Mineta, who was said to have become a partisan of Soviet Jewry after he had been briefed by a student on the Coalition three years ago, said "The prestige and the power of the Presidency must be brought to bear to send a clear message to the Soviet leadership that freedom of emigration is an essential prerequisite for normal relations with our country. The spotlight of international public opinion must be cast on the Soviets and their policies."
Donna Borjarsky, of Los Angeles, a Brandeis senior in political science, heads the Coalition this year. Other leaders, all of Brandeis, are Eric Mattenson, of Chicago, a senior in economics; Stephen Rabinowitz, of Brooklyn, N.Y., a sophomore in history; and Michael Friedland, of Chicago, a sophomore in Jewish studies.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
